kandinsky's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:4
- Helpful Votes:3,130
- Reviews Submitted:100
- First Review:November 26, 2014
- Most Recent Review:September 9, 2024
- Featured reviews0
Status:
Explore the kingdom of Silverdale in this innovative new match-3 adventure.
Overall rating
3
/
5
18 of 20 found this review helpful
This Game Needs a Change or Two
PostedFebruary 21, 2015
kandinsky
fromNew York
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Puzzle
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
This is tough to review for me. It as,as other reviewers have said an ambitious match-3 games with many interesting elements however it has very large play area to explore turning over tiles to find tools one will need to open still further areas of each level's playing area. This means that it can take a long time to complete a level and if one loses track of what is explored and what parts not explored it is more than a little frustrating. But the change it most needs is that as it stands you lose all your work on a level if you exit without completing it to ,for example, shut down your computer overnight as many people do. There must be a way to save progress and beyond that I would wish that there was some sort of fall-back thing one could purchase with items earned in game play to give one the location of a tool one cannot find to finish a level.
If these things don't trouble you it can be a very fine game and if they were resolved I would continue to play it, but as it stands it is not enjoyable and therefore not playable for me.
If these things don't trouble you it can be a very fine game and if they were resolved I would continue to play it, but as it stands it is not enjoyable and therefore not playable for me.
I don't recommend this game.
You came to the town of Brownville, Louisiana hoping to find a new job. But you weren't expecting to stumble upon a strange adventure in a world filled with beauty and danger!
Overall rating
5
/
5
4 of 4 found this review helpful
WHY DO WE LIKE "GAMES WITHIN GAMES"(Thoughts)
PostedFebruary 20, 2015
kandinsky
fromNew York
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Puzzle
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
I'm giving this five stars because I greatly enjoyed it, It was great fun and made with care and imagination. recommend highly!
It is a game within a game and on the Jumanji Model, like Surface Game of Gods for another example... perhaps future game within games makers will find other ways to present and frame the situation of being within a game?
two possible reasons occcur to me as to why we, many of us,like the form of a game within a game.
1. It represents going down to a deeper level-- immersion, through the game we are playing, in something beyond the immediate surface of play... perhaps down towards the barely conscious dreams and memories we harbor...
2.Do we have a sense that we are ourselves beings with another life ,maybe not prior in time but prior in depth, beyond that of the day to day world we see? That we could somehow find a stairway or a door or a portal to a world of which this is just a shadow?
Whether these senses accord with reality or are just some will feel human dreams is another question... for my part and speaking more lightly ,in a Hudson Valley Winter, I am looking for and believing in a Door to Summer.
Anyway a very fine game...
It is a game within a game and on the Jumanji Model, like Surface Game of Gods for another example... perhaps future game within games makers will find other ways to present and frame the situation of being within a game?
two possible reasons occcur to me as to why we, many of us,like the form of a game within a game.
1. It represents going down to a deeper level-- immersion, through the game we are playing, in something beyond the immediate surface of play... perhaps down towards the barely conscious dreams and memories we harbor...
2.Do we have a sense that we are ourselves beings with another life ,maybe not prior in time but prior in depth, beyond that of the day to day world we see? That we could somehow find a stairway or a door or a portal to a world of which this is just a shadow?
Whether these senses accord with reality or are just some will feel human dreams is another question... for my part and speaking more lightly ,in a Hudson Valley Winter, I am looking for and believing in a Door to Summer.
Anyway a very fine game...
I recommend this game!
You've been asked to cover a highly anticipated competition in New York City when something goes terribly wrong. Can you escape the world of illusions?
Overall rating
5
/
5
12 of 15 found this review helpful
BUBBLY CHAMPAGNE FOR THE IMAGINATION
PostedFebruary 16, 2015
kandinsky
fromNew York
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Puzzle
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
I found it progressively fun and the more fun moving on and through the bonus game. More pleasing too because the threats of the villian was not only powerless as usual and even boringly usual in these games, but one came to feel the whole as illusion including all the ups and downs of the illusionist who as far as I could count left no dead bodies or deeply damaged lives. Could it be that his evil too is an illusion? Anyway that is the effect and then one is left with the colors and dancing forms through which to make your way by land and sea yet all the movement too as illusory in the story as these games are in our lives There is room for a sequel and I hope its imaginative touch can be as sure as that of this game seems to me. I am happy to be able to give a five which is not just with a sigh to support the genre.
And a recommendation especially to anyone who can enjoy a plot that turns into a bright mysterious bubbling champagne to taste in an art deco dream.
And a recommendation especially to anyone who can enjoy a plot that turns into a bright mysterious bubbling champagne to taste in an art deco dream.
I recommend this game!
For years, Barton Mansion sat abandoned, a haunting reminder of an obsession gone wrong. But something sinister still lurked there...and it's stirring.
Overall rating
3
/
5
11 of 13 found this review helpful
"Time to stop hunting dark dimensions,huh?"
PostedFebruary 13, 2015
kandinsky
fromNew York
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Puzzle
Fun Factor
2
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
2
/
5
When a character in a cut scene remarked it was time to stop hunting dark dimensions , I felt a surge of agreement! I can see how someone could enjoy this game and dont let me stop you but just for me there were a number of small things and one large that I dont like ...first the small things are I do not like the pink and blue color scheme, I worry about a game where you collect items to furnish a ..dog room for your animal helper. huh. Also I dont think much of the vines, I dont find any interest in the characters,. The potentially interesting plot elements about the growing house of that California lady Sarah Winchester, is wasted by the lack of characterization or so it seems to me. Also personally would prefer more hidden object scenes which were straight forward finding and less which were find and use... I agree with the reviewer on the placement of the strategy guide which I did not find until late in the game... the larger thing is this that I found it had been a time filler without even that inner satisfaction that comes from having been in a place one enjoyed being. I ask myself why did I use the time this way rather than otherwise? This question is deadly for this kind of pastime isn't it? On that basis three stars for a serviceable sort of game to fill time but no recommendation.
I don't recommend this game.
An unexpected invitation sends you to research mythical standing stones in Brittany.
Overall rating
5
/
5
10 of 13 found this review helpful
THIS IS HOW TO MAKE A SAVE THE WORLD GAME
PostedFebruary 10, 2015
kandinsky
fromNew York
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Puzzle
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
This is the most enjoyable game I have played this year and about as interesting as any I played last year too. Dont even think of missing it! That's about what I have to say but in detail I would especially praise the way the story is handled so that even though there are a hundred other games with about the same general idea, the viewpoint character a girl who acquires magical powers for a showdown with an evil force which can destroy the world as we know it (aside I wonder what the first HOPA game with this plot was?) this game is exciting and fresh and moves along with a mounting urgency rather than the usual sinking boredom. As a parallel, also an SE I think of Alec Hunter Lord of the Mind which is another wonderful and relatively unheralded maybe game. The visuals struck me as ranging from beautiful and fascinating in design to so-so, the sparking fuse thing at the top during hidden object scenes I could do without but the scenes themselves have a pleasing variety, But try it and see for yourself what can be done when a developer pays attention and loving care. kudos to Orchid and glad to see they are working on another adventure game, let's watch for it!
I recommend this game!
Ice giants are attacking citizens as a deadly blizzard arrives.
Overall rating
3
/
5
10 of 12 found this review helpful
Wears out its welcome
PostedFebruary 9, 2015
kandinsky
fromNew York
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Puzzle
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
1
/
5
It is cold and snowy where I live in the Hudson Valley and so somehow this game starts out being a welcome seasonal diversion. And the visual realization is very nice and the sound ok as are the puzzles and games. BUT the story is SO predictable and hackneyed that I tired early and yet kept going and each plot development seemed less imaginative than the one before and then the formula conclusion pushes the envelope a little too far for even someone as compulsive as I am by leading into the bonus story in which I found mysself having absolutely no interest. I think perhaps we should withhold generous grades for these kinds of productions and hold out for better things which lately have been alarmingly few.
I don't recommend this game.
In this scarier-than-ever story, find out what really happened on prom night, 1964...
Overall rating
4
/
5
5 of 5 found this review helpful
Better And Worse Than The Original
PostedJanuary 20, 2015
kandinsky
fromNew York
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Puzzle
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
Ill give it four stars as an average. Top marks in my book for the enjoyment I had in the plot and the care and state-of-the-art work that Eipix put into the production. I enjoy their way of doing hidden object games in one level opening out to another, the graphics, the cut scenes and so on.
But two reservations. The bonus game was nice to play but didn't make a lot of sense to me somehow and seems to end at an unresolved place(I guess the answer is that it fits within rather than after the main story but I'm not sure it fits very well). More important for me is that while I am delighted in the new things the game has compared to the original Phantasmat in most ways, I am not delighted by the way of handling horror which seems to be more towards the style of slasher films as compared to the brooding understated gothic mood of the first Phantasmat and the plot of the first was in general more subtle and subtley worked out. But play this for fun and to admire the craft of the developer with gratitude.
But two reservations. The bonus game was nice to play but didn't make a lot of sense to me somehow and seems to end at an unresolved place(I guess the answer is that it fits within rather than after the main story but I'm not sure it fits very well). More important for me is that while I am delighted in the new things the game has compared to the original Phantasmat in most ways, I am not delighted by the way of handling horror which seems to be more towards the style of slasher films as compared to the brooding understated gothic mood of the first Phantasmat and the plot of the first was in general more subtle and subtley worked out. But play this for fun and to admire the craft of the developer with gratitude.
I recommend this game!
After crashing your car in the middle of nowhere, you stumble upon a mysterious town with a shady background. Solve a dark mystery!
Overall rating
3
/
5
9 of 9 found this review helpful
A Classic For All. But more fun for some than for others.
PostedJanuary 14, 2015
kandinsky
fromNew York
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Puzzle
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
I played this four years after its appearance so it is from that viewpoint and as always from my own personal interests that I write this but maybe it can be helpful to others just approaching this game.
Two things are clear. One it is a classic lovingly and carefully made by a studio,Codeminion, that sadly stopped producing in 2012. The plot is engrossing, the story is spectral but warm hearted --an old fashioned gothic maybe but not a slasher film. The hidden object scenes are the old style straightforward sort and not really difficult.
But therein liers the second thing to know. This is a HIDDEN OBJECT game in the sense of one HOG after another, a few puzzles and well thought out and done cut scenes and character interactions but if you are going to find an object it will be a HOG that gets it for you and then another for the next object and pretty much that straight through.
I wonder how many players who love today's newer games, for that matter Phantasmat:Endless Night newly out as I write, will really enjoy this style of game.
My own most loved developer Blue Tea had by 2012 gone well beyond this game in some imaginative ways. Phantasmat was a little dated when it came out one might say and yet ... well play it and see how special an achievement the game is.
Im marking it down to three which is the level of my enjoyment of the game and to make that point about the endless HOG scenes, but if you love that style of game it will be pure delight, and even if you dont maybe like me you will be thankful to have played a memorable and classic game.
Two things are clear. One it is a classic lovingly and carefully made by a studio,Codeminion, that sadly stopped producing in 2012. The plot is engrossing, the story is spectral but warm hearted --an old fashioned gothic maybe but not a slasher film. The hidden object scenes are the old style straightforward sort and not really difficult.
But therein liers the second thing to know. This is a HIDDEN OBJECT game in the sense of one HOG after another, a few puzzles and well thought out and done cut scenes and character interactions but if you are going to find an object it will be a HOG that gets it for you and then another for the next object and pretty much that straight through.
I wonder how many players who love today's newer games, for that matter Phantasmat:Endless Night newly out as I write, will really enjoy this style of game.
My own most loved developer Blue Tea had by 2012 gone well beyond this game in some imaginative ways. Phantasmat was a little dated when it came out one might say and yet ... well play it and see how special an achievement the game is.
Im marking it down to three which is the level of my enjoyment of the game and to make that point about the endless HOG scenes, but if you love that style of game it will be pure delight, and even if you dont maybe like me you will be thankful to have played a memorable and classic game.
I recommend this game!
Characters from classical literature are coming to life!
Overall rating
4
/
5
9 of 9 found this review helpful
The Missing Tower
PostedJanuary 8, 2015
kandinsky
fromNew York
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Puzzle
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
I live a couple of miles from Sunnyside ,Washington Irving's house, the first setting of this game and enjoyed the visit to a fantasy version of my own immediate world. The Hudson is brought up right to the door, it is not so near though can look so in photos no doubt used by developers. Indeed Irving made a waterfall and pond but not the niagara in the back yard we are given, a fall of a foot or so from a small pond it is. And the Spanish tower adding a fantastic element to an already imaginative house is missing. though added later than Dickens' historic visit, it would have been a good place to have in a story.
Well...other reviewers have said it all about the mechanics of the game and the visuals --they are normal and more or less state of the art (though one has to be a little precise in moving the cursor to get recognition of placed things).
But the plot over-reaches, and leaves Washington Irving behind early on (though he makes a cameo appearance in the bonus chapter and again is left behind) and we move on in several directions suggested by Dickens career, none of which seem particularly well handled to me.
It is said that when Irving met Dickens for the first time during the English writers American visit he found a buffet and Dickens asking 'would you prefer a julep or a gin cocktail?'
The developers have attempted to give us both here and more and in the end it seems to me one or the other would have worked better. I should choose the Washington Irving theme ,with Dickens as a visitor and the two friends collaborating, and the secret in the mysterious Spanish Tower in Irving's future ...
and the later alienation of the two sometime friends (though continued mutual admiration) could be drawn from their adventure ... well ,as a developer, you may say to me "Don't quit your day job!"
But I give the game four stars and recommend it for reaching towards a fascinating story but maybe over-reaching and in doing at once too much and too little.
Well...other reviewers have said it all about the mechanics of the game and the visuals --they are normal and more or less state of the art (though one has to be a little precise in moving the cursor to get recognition of placed things).
But the plot over-reaches, and leaves Washington Irving behind early on (though he makes a cameo appearance in the bonus chapter and again is left behind) and we move on in several directions suggested by Dickens career, none of which seem particularly well handled to me.
It is said that when Irving met Dickens for the first time during the English writers American visit he found a buffet and Dickens asking 'would you prefer a julep or a gin cocktail?'
The developers have attempted to give us both here and more and in the end it seems to me one or the other would have worked better. I should choose the Washington Irving theme ,with Dickens as a visitor and the two friends collaborating, and the secret in the mysterious Spanish Tower in Irving's future ...
and the later alienation of the two sometime friends (though continued mutual admiration) could be drawn from their adventure ... well ,as a developer, you may say to me "Don't quit your day job!"
But I give the game four stars and recommend it for reaching towards a fascinating story but maybe over-reaching and in doing at once too much and too little.
I recommend this game!
Stop a vengeful Titan from destroying Athens – and the world!
Overall rating
3
/
5
10 of 15 found this review helpful
Send in the Clones
PostedJanuary 2, 2015
kandinsky
fromNew York
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Puzzle
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
If I hadnt played a lot of HOPA games , or if I just wanted the mixture as usual, I might find this a lot of fun, or maybe even if I were in a different mood who knows? Or maybe if it were by a developer from some country one doesnt hardly find games from like the United States or ,on the other hand for the Greek mythological scene, from Greece...
But as it is after playing through to Pegesus (the free trial area)
I say been there done that and the genre cannot depend for a future on making clones of plot-lines and visual presentations which have lost their power to excite. I have had so much fun from bigfish distributed HOPA games in this last year that I want the genre to continue and to grow. This is not a good sign. Let's ,on rethinking my title, Send Out the Clones! on that basis and understanding (and hope you will too if its for you) that it will be fun for some... I withhold the recommend to make that statement.
But as it is after playing through to Pegesus (the free trial area)
I say been there done that and the genre cannot depend for a future on making clones of plot-lines and visual presentations which have lost their power to excite. I have had so much fun from bigfish distributed HOPA games in this last year that I want the genre to continue and to grow. This is not a good sign. Let's ,on rethinking my title, Send Out the Clones! on that basis and understanding (and hope you will too if its for you) that it will be fun for some... I withhold the recommend to make that statement.
I don't recommend this game.